The known motor vehicle lock (US 2010/0235058 A1) on which the invention is based is fitted with the closing elements of a lock bolt and catch. The lock bolt cooperates in the usual way with a closing bar and is held in a main engagement position or pre-engagement position by the catch in its dropped position.
The known motor vehicle lock is an electric lock with mechanical redundancy. This means the catch is lifted by motor drive by means of an opening auxiliary drive. Also a mechanical actuating system is provided for the catch which, in particular on failure of the power supply, allows manual lifting of the catch via an inside door handle.
The known vehicle lock can be brought into various function states “unlocked”, “locked”, “theft protected” and “child-locked”. In the function state “unlocked”, the allocated vehicle door can be opened from the inside and from the outside. In function state “locked” it cannot be opened from the outside but can be opened from the inside. In function state “theft protected”, it cannot be opened either from the outside or the inside. In function state “child-locked”, it can be opened from the outside but not from the inside.
In the known vehicle lock, the above function states are always stored in a lock controller. As far as the motorised lifting of the catch is concerned, all function states are implemented purely by the controller.
In order in particular to implement the function states “theft protected” and “child-locked” mechanically also in view of the mechanical actuation system of the interior actuating lever, the actuation system in the known vehicle lock provides a coupling device in the widest sense. In coupled state, the actuation system is coupled with the catch to lift it while the actuation system runs freely in decoupled state. From decoupled state a first actuation of the inner actuating lever always causes the coupling of the coupling arrangement. In the presence of the controller function states “theft protected” or “child-locked”, the lock controller however causes an immediate reset of the coupling arrangement to the decoupled state so that a second actuation has no effect on the catch. Without this reset, the catch could be lifted manually on the second actuation. In known vehicle locks, manual actuation takes place with a double stroke concept.
Said reset of the coupling arrangement in known vehicle locks is always connected with a shift of the entire mechanical actuation system. To achieve an adequate speed of the above reset, the motorised control drive necessary for this must be designed correspondingly strong, which leads to a very high design cost.